With Giannis out, Bucks' Bledsoe steps up

Eric Bledsoe, Bucks guard (⬆️ UP)

Bledsoe had a nice week, but with Giannis Antetokounmpo out Monday, he really stepped up his game. In the Giannis-less win over Sacramento, Bledsoe poured in 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting (including making three of four 3-point attempts) and also had eight rebounds and eight assists. And that’s par for the course. In the five games this season so far in which Antetokounmpo hasn’t played, Bledsoe is averaging 18.2 points while shooting 63.3% from the field, 66.7% from 3-point land and 95.0% from the line. By the way, the rest of Bledsoe’s week wasn’t too shabby, either. He had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Thursday’s win over Philadelphia and 18 points and eight assists (while being a plus-26) in a victory at Orlando.

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Brook Lopez, Bucks center (⬆️ UP)

George Hill, the NBA’s leader in 3-point percentage, has been sidelined with a hamstring injury. No worries, Milwaukee has Lopez. On Saturday, the 7-footer drained all five of his 3-point attempts (the five made 3s were also a season high) and on Monday he was 2 for 4 from downtown. That helped Lopez have back-to-back 20-point games (23 and 20) for the first time since he did it Dec. 29, 2018 and Jan. 1, 2019. They were also Lopez’s first games with 20 points all season.

Brewers fans (⬆️ UP)

Pitchers and catchers reported Wednesday. Need we say more? (OK, we’ll be even more excited when Christian Yelich shows up at camp.)

Marquette basketball (⬆️ UP)

While the Wisconsin program has had its ups and downs both on and off the court recently, the Golden Eagles have quietly won six of their last seven games heading into Wednesday night and joined the Associated Press top-25 poll this week at No. 18. Marquette is No. 19 in the NCAA’s NET rankings with a big game looming against Villanova (No. 15 AP, No. 21 NET) looming.

Dragan Bender, former Bucks forward (⬇️ DOWN)

Someone had to go when Milwaukee signed forward Marvin Williams and the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft was the one to be shown the door with his main role this season being either inactive (and/or down in the G League) or a DNP. Bender appeared in just seven games for the Bucks. Four of those came between Jan. 14-24, and he got more than 20 minutes playing time in two of those — but he hadn’t played since. Well, at least we got to spotlight him once.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks forward (⬆️ UP)

Yeah, we could give you all the usual numbers and impressive statistics, but his most important addition came this week. There’s nothing like becoming a first-time dad.